‘Guess Who’ is No.1 in opening weekend

“Guess Who,” with dueling lead characters played by Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac, took in an estimated $21 million in its opening weekend, Sony Pictures Entertainment reported Sunday.

In a very loose reinterpretation of 1967’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” Kutcher plays the nervous fiance of the suspicious Mac’s daughter Zoe Saldana.

Perhaps predictably, given Kutcher’s status as a youthful heartthrob and tabloid fodder for his relationship with Demi Moore, the movie skewed a bit young and female but otherwise attracted what Sony Pictures Distribution President Rory Bruer described as a broad audience.

Moviegoers surveyed in six locations across the country were 54% female and 59% under 25, and 45% were Caucasian and 55% were of “other ethnicity,” which included African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans, Bruer said.

It was the fifth film this year with an African American in a major role to open atop the box office, and for six of 12 weekends this year the No. 1 film has been about or featured African Americans in top roles: “Coach Carter,” “Are We There Yet?,” “Hitch” (first place for two weekends), “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” and “Guess Who.”

If you include “The Pacifier,” whose star Vin Diesel remains publicly cryptic about his ethnicity, the number of top films and weekends rises to six and seven, respectively.

In any case, it’s a development worth noting after years of less exposure and perceptions of inequality. A quick perusal of the first 12 or 13 weeks of each year since 2000 turns up three titles at most in any given season in which African Americans had leading parts or figured prominently.

“Guess Who” is Kutcher’s third No. 1 movie (after “Just Married” and “The Butterfly Effect”) and Mac’s second (after his prominent role in “Head of State” but excluding the ensemble star vehicles “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Ocean’s Twelve” and “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle”).

Director “Kevin Rodney Sullivan pulled off a broad comedy that plays really well,” Bruer said. Sullivan previously directed “Barber Shop 2: Back in Business” and “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” among other movies and significant TV work.

Opening in the No. 2 position, the Sandra Bullock sequel “Miss Congeniality: Armed and Fabulous” took in an estimated $14.5 million Friday through Sunday and $17.6 million since it opened Thursday.

Dan Fellman, president of distribution for Warner Bros., said exit surveys indicated the audience was 70% female and 60% over 25. Fellman noted, “The original ‘Miss Congeniality’ opened in the No. 5 position with $10 million” and eventually registered a total of $106.3 million.

Business for “The Ring Two” dropped more than 60% in the horror sequel’s second weekend, with DreamWorks reporting about $13.8 million in third place.

Easter Sunday is not usually a big moviegoing day, and studios adjusted their Sunday estimates accordingly, although amounts could vary significantly from these numbers when more reliable numbers are released today.

Among movies in limited release, Woody Allen’s “Melinda and Melinda” expanded from a single venue in New York to 95 theaters in 13 cities, including Los Angeles, grossing an estimated $790,000, according to Steve Gilula, Fox Searchlight president of distribution. That brings its total to a little more than $1 million.

Gilula said Searchlight would add 17 cities this week, up to about 150 theaters, and would go nationwide April 8 to about 300 theaters.

Still just outside the top 10 at No. 11, “The Upside of Anger” took in almost $1.3 million in 167 theaters in its third weekend, New Line Cinema reported Sunday.

With a total box office for all films of about $100 million, box office was down about 14% from last weekend and by the same amount for the comparable April 9, 2004, Easter weekend, according to box office tracking firm Nielsen EDI Inc.

Year to date, the numbers look a little better at roughly $1.87 billion compared with $1.89 billion last year, which was inflated by the huge numbers for “The Passion of the Christ.”

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Box Office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total Guess Who $21 $21 Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous 14.5 17.6 The Ring Two 13.8 58 Robots 13 87.4 The Pacifier 8.5 86.3 Hitch 4.3 166.5 Hostage 4.1 26.2 Ice Princess 3.7 13.3 Be Cool 2.9 51.7 Million Dollar Baby 2.6 94.2

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Source: Nielsen EDI Inc.